UBC Medicine

The best innovations often arise from the joining of two distinct, independently developed innovations. Two members of the Faculty of Medicine are on their way to proving that principle yet again. Peter von Dadelszen, a specialist in high-risk pregancies, has devised a model for diagnosing pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy) that is geared toward developing countries. Mark [...]

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A few years ago, the waiting room at Kelowna General Hospital’s emergency deparment was routinely packed, but not necessarily because there were too many patients and too few doctors and nurses. Sometimes, bottlenecks resulted in the physicians waiting for patients, even as the patients were waiting to see the physicians. Something had to change.  Fortunately, they were able to [...]

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Hang Time is an iPhone app that calculates the precise amount of time an iPhone spends falling to the ground. Another app, called Hello Cow, emits a variety of mooing sounds. Haircaster predicts what kind of hair day it will be. OK, maybe those aren’t the best examples of how technology helps society. But here’s one: [...]

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Rare disease actually isn’t so rare. It’s generally defined as a genetic malady affecting one out of every 2,000 or more people. But that is still too small a percentage to attract the attention of the traditional research establishment — unless there is some incentive. Two young faculty members in the Department of Medical Genetics [...]

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Three decades into the women’s health movement, Dr. Larry Goldenberg, Head of the Department of Urologic Sciences, is hoping to replicate its success with the other half of the population. On Nov. 17, he launched the Men’s Health Initiative of BC, a project aimed at bringing together the best research about men’s health and disseminating it to [...]

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Dr. Shafique Pirani, a Clinical Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics, has been going back and forth to Uganda for a decade, with a singular purpose: Ridding the country of his youth of clubfoot. The birth defect, in which one or both feet are turned inward and downward, is a particularly difficult burden in developing countries like [...]

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As the Olympic torch nears its destination of BC Place in Vancouver for the opening ceremonies of the Winter Games, the Department of Physical Therapy will have a hand in getting it there. Tyler Dumont, a Clinical Associate Professor, was chosen by his peers to represent the department in the relay. The department was given [...]

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Two members of the Faculty of Medicine will be especially busy in February and March, thanks to a little something called the Winter Olympics. Jack Taunton (right), Professor in the Division of Sports Medicine (part of the Family Practice Department) is Chief Medical Officer for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, responsible for the health and [...]

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Here’s a news flash (not): The medical research and education complex is beset by bottlenecks of knowledge. In research, it’s the huge volume of discoveries that are published in pricey journals, protected by copyright and inaccessible to people without easy access to an academic library. In education, it’s the huge demand for health professionals, and the [...]

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One of our clinical teachers (and one of our newest deans), Dr. Gurdeep Parhar, is redefining the role of teacher. After years of treating first-generation immigrants from Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Bosnia, Croatia and Africa at his family practice in Burnaby, he is applying his multicultural insights by starting (and starring in) his own television show, Pearls of Success. [...]

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